The world…is characterized by the subtle and relentless pressure it brings to bear upon us to conform to its values and practices. It creeps up on us little by little. What was once unthinkable becomes thinkable, then doable, and finally acceptable to society at large. Sin becomes respectable, and so Christians are no more than five to ten years behind the world in embracing most sinful practices.
The Discipline of Grace, NavPress, 1994, p. 202-203.
Worldliness is whatever makes sin look normal and righteousness look strange.
Piety’s Pattern by Kevin DeYoung taken from The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung, copyright 2012, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 37.
Worldliness is a spirit, a temperament, an attitude of the soul. It is a life without high callings, life devoid of lofty ideals. It is a gaze always horizontal and never vertical.
[The “world” is the system] which men are in basic agreement about what is right and wrong, valuable and worthless, important and unimportant. Sinful men have many different ideas and standards, but they are in total agreement that the network of things in this world is more important than the divine perspective of God. In this most basic world outlook they are of one mind. They resolutely work to fulfill the goals and values of their system, though it defies God and always self-destructs. Sinners are persistent in their rejection, and the worse their system becomes, the more they try to justify it and condemn those who speak the Word of God against it.
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 56.
Worldliness is any preoccupation with or interest in the temporal system of life that places anything perishable before that which is eternal.
Worldliness: it involves love for earthly things, esteem for earthly values, and preoccupation with earthly cares. Scripture plainly labels it sin – and sin of the worst stripe. It is a spiritual form of adultery that sets one against God Himself (James 4:4).
No Earthly Idea About Heaven taken from The Glory of Heaven by John MacArthur, copyright 1996, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois, 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, page 48.
Worldliness is not a matter of engaging in those practices that some question. It is unthinkingly adopting the perspectives, values and attitudes of our culture, without bringing them under the judgment of God’s Word. It is carrying on in our lives as if we did not know Jesus.
Expository Dictionary of Bible Words, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com, 1985, p. 639.
According to Revelation 17, the world is the great harlot’s who rides on the back of Satan and makes it her goal is to spiritually prostitute people away from God, offering them the spiritual wine that intoxicates their affections and makes them dull to the things of God.
Sermon, The World’s Crushing Defeat, Revelation 18:1-24, March 20, 2016.
The world is the system of every age, the philosophy that opposes the things of God. The world is forever brainwashing, seeking to squeeze people into their mold. If the Bible calls for something, most often the world will be against it. The world will persecute people that oppose its standard. Nobody opposes the world more than Jesus. In biblical times confessing Jesus would put you out of the synagogue. Now confessing Jesus will put you out of the good graces of politics, Hollywood, the press, academia and personal acquaintances.
Pleasure, profit, preferment are the worldling’s trinity.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 310.
Worldliness is what any particular culture does to make sin look normal and righteousness look strange.
